Just keeping you updated if you are following my 365 on an irregular basis. This covers the week behind us, from Monday to Sunday. I hope you enjoy them. My favorite this week has to be the shot of the tiny tow truck loaded with turf that I took on my walk through the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle on Friday. It’s just so whimsical. My least favorite is the picture of my grandmother’s clock. It holds a lot of sentimental value for me, but I don’t find the photo to be technically up to par. And there are more than seven photos because I did a major photowalk around the Washington arboretum and the Montlake neighborhood on Friday.
Remember, don’t forget: if you click on the first shot, you can scroll through using your arrow keys or by swiping. Also, while you are looking at the individual photos, click the small i at the bottom of the page to read the full caption and see my photographic metadata.
Located on Capitol Hill, you’ll find the very cool Volunteer Park. There’s so much to see, but I must admit it took me over 20 years after moving to the Seattle area before I finally visited. Now, I see it every day when I go for my radiation treatments. The park features the Black Sun, a donut-shaped sculpture by artist Isamu Noguchi. It’s fitting that it’s there because if you look in the opposite direction from where I took this photo, you’ll be in front of the Asian Art Museum of Seattle. And, of course, there’s the “not to miss” shot I got of the Space Needle just to prove that I’m in Seattle.
This is a face filled with memories. This clock once belonged to my Italian grandmother. Grandma Bellomo was very special to me. When I was nearly seven years old, my mother had a stroke. In those days, you could spend weeks recovering in the hospital. My brother Steve was just a baby, so he went to stay with my mom’s parents while I lived with Grandma Bellomo. I stayed with her for almost a year. On one of my first days there, she told me, “When your mother comes home, she won’t be able to use one of her hands, and she will have problems with one of her legs. So, you will need to know how to take care of things for your family.” She taught me to clean, do laundry, and, above all, she taught me to cook. Since then, I have loved to cook. This clock was in her kitchen, and one day, my father asked if I wanted it. I had to say yes. Now, it sits in my office on top of a bookshelf. We don’t wind it because, being a kitchen clock, it has the most horrendous chime… more like a bong. But I still love this clock. And I still love my Grandma Bellomo.
Another day, another radiation treatment on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. On the way home with Kathleen—she joined me today since it’s doctor consultation day—I noticed these radio antennas. I loved how they looked against the cool sky.
Tonight was our monthly Trilogy Travel Club meeting. I took my camera because I wanted to do some candid photography. I’m always on the lookout for a good face—and I found one. He was giving me a very skeptical look, but it had so much expression.
Since it was Friday and I needed to be in Redmond by 3:30, and I wouldn’t finish my radiation until 1:15, I decided to spend the time in between enjoying a photo walk through the Washington Arboretum. I ended up covering five miles, which included the Montlake Cut (a place I had never visited before) and exploring the arboretum. To get there, I walked underneath the 520 floating bridge. Here are a few bonus shots as well. Since I did this last Friday, I might have to make it a regular habit. Photo 1 is under that bridge, and I love the repetition.
Then, there were some synchronized swimming by a pair of ducks
After that, I took a picture of one of Seattle’s houseboat colonies. f you look closely, you can spot the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat where Tom Hanks lived with his son.
In front of a beautiful home, there was a truck, and I loved how the photo turned out.
We conclude with a couple in our age group taking a stroll with their dog. It was a great day for photography.
… followed by a view of the Montlake Bridge with the Cascades in the distance.
Here she is in all her beauty. The new light of our lives.
We live surrounded by forests here in Trilogy Redmond Ridge. We have all kinds of trails that wind in and out through our community of over 1,500 homes. I love to walk these trails and see Mother Nature at her best. But sometimes, she shows her worst side. I have been observing a particular downed tree since we were hit by a bomb cyclone back in November. The tree fell due to the wind. Naturally, in that kind of wind, many trees come down, but this was by far the largest I have ever seen in Trilogy (or anywhere else, for that matter). As incredible as it was, I still don’t like the capture I got of it to tell a story. I wanted you to see the front and top of the tree lying on the ground as well as the back (the root ball) of the tree and the whole where the wind uprooted it. That’s the incredible part. I also wish I had brought someone else along to be in the photo, since for something like this, you really need a human for scale.
Suffice it to say that from the bottom of the hole where the root ball came out to the top of the roots is more than 20 feet. I based that estimate (because I am not going to get muddy trying to measure it) on it being almost four times as tall as I am. Also, when you see the log sticking out of the front, just know that was not the actual trunk of the tree; that has already been cut up because it was blocking the trail. This tree was mammoth.
